Thunder

Interesting weather today - and a drenching. But hold that thought, for it was later. First of all I had to get out of bed, after not really enough sleep to make up for yesterday - I could hardly keep my eyes open even as I was cooking my porridge. Then I had to dress relatively smartly, not forgetting to wear a jacket firm enough to hold a mic in place at the collar and with a pocket for the battery box - and in fact the one I chose had breast pockets rather than any others, with the resulting awkwardness when it came to delivering the sermon this morning, though in fact I'd wakened up sufficiently to deal with it by then. I thought the sermon might be a tad dull, but people were enthusiastic, which was nice. There was good conversation afterwards too, which is lovely, and then Di came in for coffee and a catch-up. 

I found myself asleep after lunch, but suddenly the sun came out - by this time we'd gone from still, warm and grey through a burst of heavy rain at lunchtime - and we felt we should probably go out sooner rather than later. A quick recce out of front and back windows showed lighter sky to the south and off we set, to park at Toward primary school and start walking. First I took the photo I though would go at the head of this blip - there was a great convocation of cormorants and other seabirds lined up on two adjacent rocks off the beach, their black silhouettes standing out nicely against the grey, flat sea. However, ten minutes later I took the above picture, mainly of the sky, and I think I like the variety in the sky which symbolises the slight madness of the day ...

We were halfway along the road to the sailing club when it started. A few fat drops of rain suddenly gathered in intensity, and in that very moment I realised that the think jacket I was wearing in a spirit of enquiry was not waterproof, despite its label suggesting it might be. There was a great crack of thunder overhead, so despite all the childhood warnings about thunderstorms and trees and metal umbrellas and instant death we left the road and plunged into the grounds of Castle Toward - grounds that we used to be able to walk through and avoid the main road but which have been shut to the public when the castle was bought as a private dwelling. There we found a sturdy rhododendron beside the path, overshadowed by a tall, leafy tree, and there we lurked, the rain increasing in intensity as water from the top of my head ran down inside my jacket, soaking my shirt and dripping annoyingly from my left ear ...

At least our trousers stayed dry. The rain lessened ... stopped ... and as we set off again a brief, watery sun appeared. We got our couple of miles, we were rained on again, I made a wee movie with the thunder rolling round and the rain once more pattering on the trees. And yes, we're mad. We didn't see another soul on foot. 

But we enjoyed our dinner, and it's dry again now.